Tourism. Trends. Tactics. Technology.

February 14, 2019

The State of Indiana has never meaningfully invested in promoting itself as a destination...which always struck me as odd. After all, they border a State that does...and continues to enjoy national recognition from one of the most successful tourism campaigns in history. One would think that the competitive juices would flow a bit more abundantly.

But, no. Indiana invents less than $5 million a year to invite visitors, investors and potential residents to consider their sensational destination. A head-scratcher, to be sure.

The bill doesn't allocate more revenue (naturally) but could open the way for the new agency to develop new revenue streams.

My only question: Was it a unanimous vote because the concept is brilliant...or because the House is tired of being accused of not understanding the crucial importance of destination marketing on a State's economy and just wanted to wash its hands of the whole affair?

February 07, 2019

His self-defense has a pinch of logic to it...but that doesn't excuse the insane lack of judgment and sensitivity from the Tourism Minister from Uganda.

The other day, Godfrey Kiwanda thought he had hatched a winner. The new tourism campaign would feature "curvy" women. "We decided to use the unique beauty, the curves... (as a) product to be marketed along with what we already have as a country, ranging from nature, the language and food, to make it a tourist attraction," he explained. So, he's supporting a curvy beauty pageant to find the new "face" of tourism.

February 05, 2019

Among the top 14 international long-haul destinations around the world, only one (Turkey) performed worse than the U.S. from 2015-2017. Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks avoided the over-used phrase "perfect storm" as he coined an even better one: "a triad of factors" impacting America's lackluster performance.

"The global economy is slowing, most currencies have weakened against the dollar and U.S. policy and rhetoric have damaged sentiment. We see the latter two to be the prevailing factors over the past two years," he added. And, digging deeper into the country-by-country results really highlights how negative perceptions toward the U.S. are evident in significant travel declines from the Middle East, China and Germany. Indeed, growth in inbound travel from China completely stalled in 2018, after averaging an annual growth rate of over 20% for the past decade.

January 10, 2019

How do you counter the perception that your destination is undesirable? It's the voice of the client.

Discover Puerto Rico recently invited professional meeting planners to tour their event facilities. They found exactly what we found when we visited. The urban center of the island is back...and better than ever.

January 02, 2019

Government officials in Charlottesville and Albermarle County have been weighing in over the past few months on ways to make the Destination Marketing Organization there more responsive and accountable. Not that it wasn't. But, a handful of people are bound and determined to remold the organization and its work.

As a re-branding process approaches its conclusion, a County Supervisor is demanding that the name of the County be included in the logo, using a pretty common train of thought: “We are paying half the money, almost, and, yes, people in Oshkosh may not know about the name of Albemarle County, but...how we help them to learn that name is to see them together.”

So, if the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of Meet Minneapolis, should Hennepin County be included in the logo? If the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of the Greater Madison CVB, should Dane County be included in the logo? And, if the County supplied "almost" half of the budget of Memphis Tourism, should Shelby County be included in the logo?

To what purpose?

Logos and destination identifiers aren't designed to educate. They are designed to inspire a visit.

You want people to know about Albermarle County? Inspire a visit to Charlottesville...and that's not achieved by jumbling the message with superfluous information that only serves to support your geographic ego.

December 04, 2018

We're also big fans of Rockford IL...and were before it was cool to be. We saw the spark years before the media figured it out.

Those two forces recently collided when Arnie took a misinformed swipe at Rockford, basing his opinion on a particularly cruel and absolutely unnecessary 2013 Forbes article calling the city the third most miserable place in America. Rockford's response was masterful...but Arnie clearly hadn't seen it.

November 29, 2018

OK...I may be missing something in the translation. But, this article from Travel Pulse certainly sounds like Mexico's new administration is moving ahead with shuttering the State Tourism Office and offloading tourism promotion to the country's embassies around the world.

August 29, 2018

A number of destinations suffer from a generally accepted image, often perpetrated by the media or lifelong local curmudgeons, that is far less flattering than one would like. And, most DMOs respond with a blind eye to the negative brand and attempt to simply counter with a positive message. And, I get that.

But, what turns my head is the acknowledgement of a destination's challenge...and a bold response to challenge that perception. Discover Puerto Rico went viral when they did it a week ago. Destination DC just did it with the simply sensational "Discover the Real DC" campaign.